The task of multicasting multicast data between subnets of a Wide Area Network (WAN) such as the Internet is often complicated by non-heterogeneity between subnets of the WAN; for purposes herein, a subnet is generally defined as a multicast zone within which any station can multicast data to any other station within the same zone. For example, subnet implementers and/or administrators must incur some expense and/or go to some effort to render a subnet multicast friendly by configuring routers and/or centralized network control to provide multicasting pass-through service. Also, providing multicasting pass-through service in a subnet constitutes a substantial security risk that is incompatible with various security solution protocols often implemented in secure Enterprise networks. Thus, a multicasting server is often able to multicast data on a multicast address inside the particular subnet within which it resides, but is not able to multicast data into an adjacent subnet or distant subnet. In a related fashion, a multicasting receiver is often able to listen at a multicast address for data multicast inside the particular subnet within which it resides, but is not able to receive data multicast from an adjacent or distant subnet. As a result, multicasting is not truly implemented in today's WANs due to varying network infrastructures between subnets.
What is needed is a way to permit a multicasting server residing in a subnet that is not multicasting friendly to multicast data into an adjacent or distant subnet. What is further needed is a way to permit one or more multicasting receivers residing in a subnet that is not multicasting friendly to request and reliably receive multicasting data from a multicasting server residing in an adjacent or distant subnet. The present invention provides a solution that fulfills these needs.